Paphos People

MULTI TASKING OR HALF A JOB HARRY

In every workplace or household there is someone who seems to be incapable of completing a job. In the factory where I served my apprenticeship we had one called ‘Half a job Harry’. If he drew some equipment from the store, he would use it then he wouldn’t return it. When somebody else wanted it and they were told ‘Harry’s got it’ a groan would go up. Harry’s bench was always untidy and finding anything on it was always a challenge.
“I was just getting round to bringing it back” he always lied.
Almost every job that he did had to be finished by somebody else because Harry had started another one. The foreman had given up and accepted the situation. As apprentices it very often fell to us to finish his jobs, it was valuable experience we were told.

Multi-tasking is just another name for the same thing. There is no scientific explanation for Multi tasking other than a lack of attention span. When somebody says that they multi-task, they mean that their brain is racing ahead before they have finished the job which they should be doing. If you live with a multi - tasker it can be very wearing. It is easier to finish the job yourself, they don’t notice because they think that they must have finished it earlier!

For example how often do you wash your hands, reach for the towel only to find that they have been put in the wash but the clean ones are still in the cupboard.
“Where’s the towel?’ you call out.
Big mistake number one.
“I was just getting round to doing that” comes the reply “I’ve only got one pair of hands you want to try doing all the things I have to do. It’s a good job I’m a multi-tasker!”

Throughout the day you will come across multi tasks which have turned into ‘Half a job Harry’ scenarios. It then becomes your job to finish them off. Of course the MT doesn’t know what you have done, because they have moved on to several more half jobs since then!
Washing up, a couple of plates not dried and left out, Shopping not all put away, fridge left wide open, drawers left open and so on.
If two MTs live together it must be unimaginable chaos.

Have you ever watched an MT doing a crossword, any words over seven or eight letters not completely filled in because they are already reading the next clue in the puzzle.

At work when an MT gets into a middle management job, all the people who work under them suddenly have the extra work of guessing what the ‘Boss’ would have done to complete the operation. If they guess wrongly, they get hauled up before the MT and those immortal words “Do I have to do everything here, you ought to be grateful that I can multi task.” Protest is futile, as they really do not see what they are doing or should I say not doing.

I was once introduced to a man who had a thousand good ideas a year, if you found the right one you could make a fortune, as long as he finished what he had started!
What about Boris Johnson? The Government is headed by somebody who seems to have a myriad of ideas going on in his head. Some of them rise to the surface hopefully the right ones, if not then God help us! We are in enough mess already.

So what have you got, Half a Job Harry or a Multi Tasker - or is it you?